The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC), an alliance of leading providers of specialist care and education for vulnerable children and young people, has raised concerns about cuts to support for children and young people with ASN.
This concern comes as new figures from the Scottish Government’s annual teacher census indicate that the number of specialist ASN teachers has fallen over the last decade to 2,864 in 2025.
In contrast, the number of those pupils with ASN has soared to a record high, now amounting to 43 per cent of the pupil population. This includes those with mental health problems, learning disabilities, autism and dyslexia.
These numbers have been increasing for years, almost doubling (95.5 per cent) over the last decade to 299,445 pupils. This rose from 153,143 in 2015, when the number of pupils with ASN amounted to some 22.5 per cent of the pupil population.
Despite this increase, between 2015 and 2025, the number of ASN teachers (publicly funded primary, secondary, special and centrally employed) has fallen from 3,038 to 2,864, a decrease of 174 teachers.
Additionally, there has only been a marginal increase in the number of educational psychologists, from 370 in 2015 to 396 in 2025.
Against a background of spending cuts and a reduction in specialist support for those with ASN, the SCSC has urged all political parties to make provision for this group a central commitment in their election campaigns.
It has also called for greater resourcing from both the Scottish Government and local authorities to ensure that those with ASN, who are disproportionately drawn from poorer neighbourhoods, receive the care and support they need.
The coalition has also raised concerns about the effectiveness of a presumption of mainstreaming, meaning that all pupils are educated in a mainstream educational environment unless exceptional circumstances apply, without the necessary support.
A spokesperson for the SCSC commented:
“It is vital that those with ASN get the care and support they need, and we urge all political parties to make this a central platform of their election campaigns.
“While we also support the presumption of mainstreaming, which means that all children and young people are educated in a mainstream educational environment unless exceptional circumstances apply, it is clearly difficult to see how this is operating properly, given the fall in specialist support and increase in the number of those with ASN.
“The next Scottish Government and local authorities need to greatly increase resources to expand access to the likes of specialist ASN teachers, educational psychologists, and classroom assistants. Without this investment, we risk a lost generation of children with ASN missing out on the care and support they need, when they need it.”
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For further information, please contact Alex Orr, Policy Adviser to the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, on 0131 603 8996 or [email protected].
Notes to Editors
About the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) is an alliance of leading providers of specialist care and education to vulnerable children and young people, as well as support to their families or carers.
It seeks to improve the lives of these children and young people, and its vision is to make Scotland the best place in the world for them to grow up in.
The SCSC aims to achieve this through campaigning to improve support for these vulnerable individuals. This seeks to ensure that a wide range of high-quality, well-resourced and easily accessible services is provided. Tailored to individual needs, this will help them to achieve their full potential.
Members of the SCSC are:
Further information about the SCSC can be found at www.thescsc.org.uk.
